ŠPIRIĆ: SERB AND CROAT CAUCUSES WILL NOT AGREE TO BE MERE SPECTATORS IN DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

SARAJEVO, MAY 14 /SRNA/ - Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, Nikola Špirić, said after today’s session that it is not possible to "achieve the same majority that exists in the House of Representatives without changes to the Constitution and Rules of Procedure," adding that the Serb Caucus and Croat Caucus will not agree to be mere spectators in the decision-making process.

Špirić said that the Serb Caucus did everything to make the 31st special session of the House of Peoples successful, noting that laws on intellectual property, amendments to the Law on the Armed Forces of BiH, and the Law on Road Traffic were adopted. "We have shown readiness to discuss issues that were not controversial for us in the past period," said Špirić. He said that there are again attempts to transfer the majority from the House of Representatives to the House of Peoples of BiH. "This is an attempt to turn the Serb Caucus and the Croat Caucus into spectators. We are not allowed to contribute, and for us to be mere spectators, that will never happen here in Sarajevo," Špirić said. Speaking about the proposed amendments to the Law on Public Procurement and the Criminal Code, Špirić said that representatives of the Serb and Croat Caucuses had requested that the acts proceed through the regular legislative procedure. "We were ready, and I believe we reached an agreement at the Collegium session that the amendments and supplements to the Law on Public Procurement, along with the Criminal Code amendments accompanying that law, should go through the regular procedure so that we could make our contribution, because we have objections both to the procedure and to the content of the law. Unfortunately, there is no understanding for that," Špirić said. He added that, under the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure, decisions in the House of Peoples cannot be adopted without representatives of the Serb Caucus, assessing that this amounts to bypassing the electoral will of the citizens of Republika Srpska. "If we say that we want to talk and that we have objections, what could be more logical than to say: ‘OK, let’s sit down, adjust the procedure, and hear what everyone thinks about the law,’" Špirić said. Responding to journalists’ questions about the Law on Public Procurement, Špirić said that the SNSD insists on adopting a higher-quality version of the law through the regular legislative procedure, and on implementing the existing legal solutions. "Laws have become a topic for election campaigns. That will not solve problems. People must sit down and talk. Everyone must be part of the process in BiH," Špirić concluded.